BURROWING AND CARPENTER BEES 



provision their brood-cells. Others keep substantially 

 the same general habit of disposing of their eggs, but 

 transfer their industry from the earth to wood. These 

 are known popularly as "carpenter bees." They num- 

 ber some small species (the Ceratinidae) and some very 

 large ones, indeed, the largest of our native bee fauna, 

 the Xylocopidae. 



The Ceratinidse include some small, smooth-bodied 

 species with metallic green or blue coloring. They may 

 be found abroad in mid-May. They seek their breed- 

 ing-homes in pithy shrubs, as elder, syringa, blackberry 

 and raspberry bushes, and field asters. Removing the 

 pith from the stalks, the little mother makes therein a 

 cell about half an inch long and a third of an inch in 

 diameter, provisions it, drops her egg, and seals it with 

 a silklike enclosure topped with a thin, mud composite. 

 Other like cells follow until a connected series of three 

 or four is formed. 



It seems a wide step from these creaturelings and their 

 tiny borings in slender stalks to the huge creatures of 

 our tropical and semi-tropical regions that remind one 

 of hmnming-birds as they fly abroad. Yet there is lit- 

 tle difference in their general habit; and all contribute, 

 though in different degrees, to at least one great purpose 

 in nature. They hasten that process of decay by which 

 the waste growth of field and forest is reduced to dust 

 and goes to form and enrich an arable soil for man and 

 for living things. 



The best-known of this group of carpenter bees is 

 Xylocopa Virginica. It is widely distributed throughout 

 the United States, and by its size and persistent borings 

 in the porches and out-houses of our rural homes is sure 

 to attract attention. When summer days grow warm 



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